Living with offspring can be so trying.  A couple of days ago I was cleaning up after one of Nicky’s food preparations.  He’d made himself a tuna sandwich with chopped up garlic dills.  I always buy the giant size no-name brand because we go through a lot of them.

When I looked at the lid, however, I saw a giant gash, which appeared to be made from a knife stab.  I put it together: tight lid, insanely impatient human, sharp knife.  Isn’t that just so irritating?  Now I have a giant, three quarters full jar of pickles with a huge hole slashed into the lid.

A day before that, Nicky said that he had to move my car as he wanted to use it to jump start his car.  The next day I went out and of course the key was gone.  When Nicky came home I asked him if he knew where my key was, and he said, “I do.  But you’re not gonna be very happy when I tell you what happened to it.”

He said that he tried to start his vehicle, and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t start.  He said, “So I bent your key trying to start my car.”  In other words, an impatient, angry brat couldn’t understand why his key wouldn’t turn over his car, so kept at it until the key was bent.

Can you see why murderous rage is something I can understand when I read about it in the newspapers or hear about it on the news?

To calm myself I spent yesterday morning making an assortment of lovely recipes from Eric Akis’ book Anyone Can Cook Appetizers.  My friends Kathy and Sharon came over in the afternoon, and we had shrimp with a roasted red pepper dip, crab cakes and key lime tarts.

I also cut up some Okanagan Harvest Cake and served it with sliced sharp cheddar cheese.  Both women thought the cakes would be great for winery gift stores, and Kathy asked, “Have you been to Quail’s Gate?”  I said, “I’ve been twice to every winery in the Okanagan!”

They couldn’t figure out why local winery gift stores wouldn’t carry a made-in-Kelowna product, and since I don’t either, I couldn’t explain it to them.  They asked what kind of excuses they give, and I said it was a wide variety, such as “we don’t have enough space.”

I’d like to suggest to them that they remove the items not made in BC and then they’d have space, but of course that would be brash.  Instead, I’m having new labels designed for the Okanagan Harvest Cakes and then will make a third run at every stinking winery in the Okanagan!